Blizzards in NYC are no joking matter. I’ve written about snow before and how it affects us, particularly by reducing our parking to a minimum. Most of us do not have driveways and on a good day it’s difficult to park. I have to thank God I live near a cemetery, because we can usually manage to find parking there, worse comes to worse, and walk the five to ten minutes back to the house.
Today’s blizzard is still in progress from yesterday morning. The wind is blowing and the temperature is in the 20’s, but feels like the teens. There will be no place to pile our snow and yet I am feeling thankful today.
I’m thankful because this is one of those rare occasions when we are all at home, together. When the kids were younger, that used to be the norm on the weekends. They had the same days off and my husband would take his vacation days when the girls were home too. We would plan things to do or go visit the grandparents. Now no one is interested in doing the same things, the grandparents have since passed on and everyone is doing their own thing on the weekends. But this Christmas weekend, from Friday to Monday (so far), we were all home together. I cooked and baked and there are lots of leftovers. There is no where to go, the blizzard has us all snowed in. We’ll eat, shovel, watch the dvds we got for Christmas and play some Wii games. I have my family back for these few days and my heart is happy.
I never took those days for granted when they were little, but it went by too fast just the same. I miss their little hands in mine while we walked to the stores. I miss the way they looked forward to Christmas and how they opened their presents with so much excitement I thought they would burst. I miss reading them stories and tucking them in at night. I miss them waking up early and coming into our bed and talking and playing before breakfast. I miss the cuddling up together. I miss hearing the word “mommy.” I miss watching them play and laugh together. Even tough it was years ago, it seems like yesterday to me. I’d turn the clock back in a heartbeat, if I could, and do it all over again.
Today, when I wake them up, I’ll stand there a minute or two and watch them sleep. They still look like babies when they sleep. Then I’ll gently wake them and give them hugs and kisses, like I used to do. They are both home for another day and I’ve been given a precious gift this weekend of having my family home with me.
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